Saturday, 4 August 2012

MISSING YOUR (LEFT LINE AND) LENGTH

Every month, the same; a pattern that, when it comes to the
effect of deadlines on my productivity, is by now quite well established: the
final days arrive, other obligations mount up, the deadline passes, the
obligations remain, and when chance presents itself (or I summon the will) I
scrutinize Cricinfo hoping to tease a narrative – or at the very least some
nice sentences, a few gags – from the mute scorecards’ unambiguous
simplifications. I even have to read other people’s reports, so that I know what happened.

Though my access be not
as free as once it was, and though the allure of being LeftLion’s cricket
correspondent has thus dimmed in step – in weary, blistered step – I am the Sports Editor, the man who
appointed me as cricket correspondent, and therefore must endeavour to do my
duty and summarise Nottinghamshire CCC’s month for people who already know what
happened.

Last month – the last column I wrote, that is; the next one
will be compiled over the forthcoming days, just me and Cricinfo all alone – was
all about Twenty20. So, in an effort to help Notts put a few bums on seats, I first
wrote a brief T20
Preview. (The fixture list will be of little use to you now, unless you
have access to a Tardis, or have Sky-Plussed all the games and avoided all
media for 5 weeks, but it’s here in case you want to check out the Notts’ promo
film: “Put some colour in your cricket”.)

After that, I write a (hopefully drole) report, a paragraph or
so to gloss each of their 10 fixtures – about which few people cared, it
seemed, because of (a) Euro 2012, and (b) rain: T20
Group Stage Report.

All of which just leaves the quarter-final to report. No
spoilers here about how the game turned out (it was a thriller, that’s all I’m
prepared to say), but rest assured that it will all be going in next month’s eagerly-anticipated,
much-Tweeted Left Line and Length, a prestigious column that I feel truly
privileged to be able to write.